The Wartime Battlefield of Sex

Abstract

When American forces broke through German resistance in the spring of 1945, U.S. Army commanders began to worry about rising reports of sexual violence. “Since the entry into Germany by the Seventh Army the number of cases of rape have increased greatly,” General Alexander Patch reported. “The situation is one in which it is believed emergency action is required.” Omar Bradley, commander of the largest group of armies on the continent, warned General Dwight D. Eisenhower that “certain conditions of looting, pillaging, wanton destruction, rape and other crimes” were widespread. By the time of his writing, in April 1945, some 500 reports of rape a week were flooding into the Judge Advocate General’s office.